It was a memorable evening not only for the ‘birthday boy’ but also his innumerable students and fans to felicitate their teacher on his ‘90th birthday’ at Kalabharathi auditorium here on Sunday.
The packed auditorium reverberated with applause from the audience as speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of the great teacher and story writer Kaalipatnam Rama Rao, popularly known as ‘Kaara maastaru’. His humble nature and his innovative teaching methods which brought out the latent talent among his students and his understanding of the contemporary situation came in for praise.
Former Mayor D.V. Subba Rao said that the tremendous response to the felicitation shows that the great writer had earned the respect and admiration of all sections of people. Former Rector of Andhra University A. Prasanna Kumar likened ‘Kaara maastaru’ to former President S. Radhakrishnan who had been described as a ‘great teacher to and for humanity’.
Describing ‘Kaara maastaru’ as a great human being, Prof. Kavana Sarma said: “apart from education, he inspired us to write.”
Dermatologist G. Raghurama Rao recalled the innovative teaching methods of his teacher when there were no books on ‘teaching methodologies’ about 50 years ago and the excellent relationship he had with his students.
Responding to the felicitations, Mr. Rama Rao showed his humility by saying: “Just now you heard my students. Though I do not say it is false, it was an ‘overdose’ and it indicates their love for me. In this world, one learns from observation and I learnt several things from my students. There is lot of knowledge in this world but what you achieve depends on how much you want to draw from the ocean of knowledge.”
“My job as a teacher helped me gain knowledge on various issues,” he said.
His students handed over a purse of Rs.1 lakh to their master.
Writer and orator Rambhatla Nrusimha Sarma compered the programme.
Health Minister Kamineni Srinivasa Rao, S. Vijay Kumar of Vijay Nirman, his students Narendranath, V. Krishna Murthy and Ganta Venkateswara Rao were among those who spoke.
